No drink is worth a death

Next Saturday, tangueros of the Flathead put on their monthly dance.

Setting up the tables and chairs and stringing lights, we always look forward to tango and socializing. We might see each other regularly, or once a month, but either way we enjoy improvised fun, then float away after creating collaborative art.

We will miss who won't be there: Alyssa Sladek. 

Alyssa showed up for a tango class in 2023. She was a person energized by adventure. Later I learned her personal mantra: “Don’t be boring.” 

I’m drawn to people cracked open, curious about new things and eager to connect. They’re OK with showing their vulnerabilities and laugh as they learn. 

We discovered we both had lived in China and could practice the language together. She had stayed three years and worked a job teaching English. She’d made many friends and was planning a trip over Chinese New Year to visit them. 

Imagine two people with Northwest Montana roots dancing Argentine tango in Kalispell and speaking Chinese. That’s the kind of world I love to live in.

It’s a world Alyssa loved, too. She planned to hike California’s coast and interview for a job in Malaysia; that was just the first part of 2025. You can bet she would have done it, and more, had she survived past Jan. 1 — when she was hit by a drunk driver.

At the court dates I attended, everyone struggled with the nonsensical tragedy that ripped Alyssa away from her family, friends and future.

For all the courtroom talk of bad decisions, alcoholism and selfish behavior, even the driver who pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide said it “could easily have been avoided” at her April 28 sentencing in Judge Heidi Ulbricht’s courtroom. 

I went to find one of Alyssa’s friends from the overflow room afterward, where she said through sobs, “How is there any good in this?”

It is little consolation for all who loved Alyssa, but times are changing for drinking and driving.  

Forbes recently named Montana No. 1 in the country for drunk driving fatalities. Since then, the state passed a law establishing mandatory minimum sentencing for impaired drivers who cause a fatality and whose blood alcohol level tests at twice the legal limit (as was the case for Alyssa’s killer).

Culturally, we evolve. Montana Tavern Times, which tracks the industry, recently detailed a Gallup poll that showed fewer people drink alcohol (54% of Americans) and less of it (Bloomberg echoed the findings, reporting that the daily beer has become “a rare indulgence” among younger adults). Thank you, cannabis?

What’s more, people on GLP-1s — about 1 in 8 Americans, according to a KFF Health Tracking Poll — experience reduced appetite for alcohol and have cut consumption by a third. 

Sobering it may be, but the mocktails at, say, Spotted Bear Spirits arguably best the “real” ones. As a bonus, you wake up useful the next day. 

At Alyssa’s celebration of life, friend Ashlyn Newburn shared what she thought would be the message from the red-headed tanguera who spoke Mandarin and aimed to learn how to take care of camels.  

“Do the thing you’ve wanted to do,” she said. “Don’t wait.” 

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at mdavis@dailyinterlake.com.